I took off on the Xstream this afternoon and rode to Purtis Creek. I ended up with 25.2 miles. It will be my last ride of 2013. I rode a total of 5,034 miles this year. That’s a lot less than the 7,000+ miles I had ridden each of the last four years. In fact, it’s less than any annual total since my first full year of riding in 2005. My new job and a move combined to reduce my miles a lot this year. And it seems likely that this will be my new mileage normal for the next few years.

Looking back at my bike journal, I thought it would be interesting to see just how many adult miles I’ve ridden since I got back on a bike for the first time in over 40 years in September, 2004. I’ve kept a journal, and here are my annual total mileages:

2004 – 930 miles
2005 – 5,013.7 miles
2006 – 5,044.6 miles
2007 – 6,161 miles
2008 – 6,708 miles
2009 – 7,440.9 miles
2010 – 7,555.4 miles
2011 – 7,519 miles
2012 – 7,224.6 miles
2013 – 5,034.4 miles

That makes a total of 58,631 miles that I’ve ridden in my adult life, in a little over 9 years of riding. I likely won’t get that many miles in the next 10 years, but if I just managed 42,000 miles, that would make 100,000 miles of riding. A worthy goal, I’m thinking. Happy New Year, everyone!

I took off on the Xstream this morning, just before noon. I hadn’t ridden in a week and a half. Here in Gun Barrel City, we didn’t get the ice storm that DFW did, but between work and the cold and wet weather, I just haven’t ridden. I had planned on starting my ride much earlier today, before the wind got up so much, but it drizzled most of the night, and the roads were very wet when I got up. They finally looked pretty dry by late morning, so off I went.

It stayed pretty chilly on today’s ride, cloudy with drizzle at times, and the temperature slowly cooled from the mid forties to 39 degrees by the time I finished. The 30 mph north wind made it feel colder than it was, too. For the first time since my bike commuting days, I broke out my handlebar mitts, and put them on the Xstream this morning, figuring that would help. And, they certainly did.

I rode out to Purtis Creek State Park, then made my usual loop into Van Zandt County, then stopped again at Purtis Creek on the way back. I ended up with 50 miles. That spiced Chai hot tea is tasting pretty good about now. I definitely got a chill from the ride. But at least I can say I managed a few miles on the bike this week.

I was armed (handed?) with bar mitts today.

Today’s route.

The forecast for later in the week is pretty bad, cold with freezing rain or sleet. So, I figured I’d better get my riding miles early in the week. With that in mind, I got up at dark-thirty yesterday (Monday) morning, and took off on the Xstream in the darkness and pea soup fog, and rode out to Purtis Creek State Park. I ended up with 25.2 miles.

When I got home from work, there was still a couple of hours of daylight, so I did the same ride out to Purtis Creek again, for another 25.2 miles. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever done 25 mile rides both before and after work.

I got home from work early again today, so I took off on the Xstream and rode to Purtis Creek, then on into Van Zandt County. I ended up with 50.3 miles. So, I have 100 miles for the week so far, and it’s only Tuesday.

Looking at the blog, I haven’t made an entry since the beginning of November. It isn’t that I haven’t been riding. I did 13 rides in November, for almost 500 miles. That’s not a great mileage month by my standards, but it’s not bad, either. But, all the rides were solo rides from home, all 50 miles or less, nothing that seemed worthy of a blog entry.

Today’s route.

This friend joined me at the turnaround point of a 25 mile ride out to Purtis Creek on November 18th.

My 25 mile ride to Purtis Creek on November 13th was the first time I’d ridden the Xstream after work into the State Park, rather than early morning when there’s no one at the entrance. One thing about riding the Xstream, when they give me that state park receipt for taping to a windshield, I actually have a windshield to tape it to.